Gestalt Psychology

Influences of Gestalt PsychologyThere are many influences that have made significant changes and have inspired different views in which Gestalt psychology is regarded; but there are only a few that has impacted the entire outcome for how psychologist view the mind and curved their understanding of how it works. Through extensive research; trial and error, previous psychologist was able to unlock the minds natural mystery and a get a glimpse of its rationalism in action. “Gestalt psychology influenced the cognitive movement with its focus on “organization, structure, relationships, the active role of the subject, and the important part played by perception in learning and memory” (Schultz, 2011, Chapter 15, Antecedent Influences on Cognitive Psychology). Antecedent Influences on Gestalt Psychology

Antecedent focuses on perception and the minds way to connect, however that may be. It is the brains way of filling in the blanks, a way of recognition and identification, a way to connect. Gestalts Law of Perceptual Organization explains six forms of psychology within its sector, The Law of Pragnanz which derived from a German word which means good figure; The Law of Similarity states that similar objects are perceived as being grouped together; The Law of Proximity explains that objects that are in close proximity appear to be grouped together; The Law of Common Fate informs us that objects moving in the same direction appear to be grouped together; The Law of Familiarity are things that form patterns that are familiar or meaningful are likely to become grouped together; The Law of Good Continuation displays that when connected points result in smoothly curving lines, the lines tend to be viewed in a way that follows the smoothest path (Goldstein, p, 107).

PhenomenologyAnother early influence in Gestalt psychology was Phenomenology; a German philosophy and...

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GestaltPsychology Reflection
PSY/310
Feb 23, 2015
Instructor: Cheri Meadowlark
GestaltPsychology Reflection
GestaltPsychology Reflection
Gestaltpsychology can be credited to the work of three men who all shared a passion for exploration of the mind and who helped lead the revolt against structuralism.
Austro-Hungarian Max Wertheimer, had an epiphany that perception was sometimes an illusion, different from the current days practice of introspection. His theory called the phi phenomenon, suggested if separate objects were viewed in rapid succession it would create an optical illusion giving the perception that the objects were actually one. Also conceptualizing the idea of productive thinking, believing new ideas are a product of reasoning.
Wertheimer was not alone in his works though. Wolfgang Kohler, an associate who studied primates in their environment, believed that more could be learned from observing a subject outside of a lab and with out reinforcements. During his work with chimpanzees he was able to observe something new, the apes possessed problem solving capabilities, which contradicted the theory widely believed that most mammals operated on a trial and error, (Schultz & Schultz, 2011). He determined that apes operated through insight and calculation based on their perceptions.
An equally important contribution to their...

...What makes psychology a science? Some people may not accept that psychology is a science – what arguments might they give?
What makes psychology a science?
The origins of psychology are drawn from three main areas of study, Philosophy, Physics and Biology.
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...Since being discovered, gestaltpsychology has made significant contributions to the study of perception, learning and social psychology. It is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and behaviour as a whole. Here I will briefly discuss the origins, the main principles of perceptual organization and how gestaltpsychology is still contributing to the practice of psychology today.
Gestaltpsychology as defined by the Encarta Dictionary: English (U.K.), a branch of psychology that treats behaviour and perception as an integrated whole and not simply the sum of individual stimuli and responses.
Gestaltpsychology emerged in Germany as a response against Wilhelm Wundt’s structuralism. Later the gestalt psychologists criticized the reductionist approach of behaviorists like Watson. The school was officially founded in the 1920s, but it all began around 1910 by Max Wertheimer (1880 – 1943) who was a Czech-born Jewish teacher. He produced a paper called apparent motion which is about visual illusions. Apparent motion is what one perceives when still images are being rapidly moved in a sequence, like watching a movie. Wertheimer discovered that, the perception of the movement as a whole was very different from the perception of the images being viewed individually as still images. This is...

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Gestaltpsychology is known as the school of thought that evaluates the human mind and behaviors as a whole, and was founded by Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967). Gestaltpsychology embraced the usefulness of consciousness, in the mean time, criticizing the attempt to reduce it to atoms or elements. The Gestalt psychologists held firm that when sensory elements are combined, the elements will form a new design or configuration. Gestalt psychologists feel that there is more to perception than meets the eye. With this said, they felt that an individual’s perception goes well over our sensory elements, the basic physical data provided to the sense organs.
The main influence of the Gestalt position, its focus on the wholeness of perception, is linked to the workings of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kant felt that when we see what we call objects, we come across mental states that look to compose bits and pieces. These elements are linked meaningfully, and not through mechanical processes of association. Instead, the mind in the stage of perceiving, will create a whole experience. Franz Brentano opposed Wundt’s focal point of elements of conscious experience, and thus thought that psychology should study the act of experiencing. Ernst Mach,...

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...their body and to objects in space. A visual spatial deficit may contribute to poor athletic performance, difficulties with rhythmic activities, lack of coordination and balance, clumsiness, reversals of forms and letters, such as ‘b’ and ‘d’ and words such as ‘on’ and ‘no’ and ‘was’ and ‘saw,’ and a tendency to work with one side of body while the other side does not participate.
B. PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
“GESTALT LAWS OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION”
Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. The Gestalt theorists were the first group of psychologists to systematcally study perceptual organization around the 1920’s, in Germany. They were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ernst Mach, and particularly of Christian von Ehrenfels and the research work of Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Koffka, and Kurt Lewin. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied. These Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization include:
1. The Law of Proximity: Stimulus elements that are closed together tend to be perceived as a group. Proximity occurs when elements are placed close together.
The nine squares above are placed without proximity. They are perceived as separate shapes....